Newsdesk - Articles in this section are generally written by professional journalists but if you know of an event that might be of wider interest to the oncology community then please contact the Editor with your ideas.
Reportage - These 1500-1750 word essays (with 2-3 pictures) are written in a journalistic style and provide a thorough overview of cancer services in a particular country or region. Our aim is to draw attention to less developed countries, but reports from developed countries that receive little coverage are also welcome. As with the
Newsdesk, these articles are usually written by commissioned professional journalists but if you have an idea for inclusion please contact the Editor.
Reflection and reaction - This section has a dual function. First, it contains commentaries on either research papers published within the past 3 months or topical issues in oncology. Most commentaries are commissioned, but unsolicited ones (no more than 800 words, 10 references and one figure) are also welcome. Unsolicited commentaries will be peer reviewed. Second, this section is the home of correspondence letters, written in response to previous content published in
The Lancet Oncology or on any topic of general interest or concern.
Reviews - These may be commissioned by in-house editors or submitted unsolicited, although in the latter case it would be wise to send the Editor a one-page outline first, to ensure that a review on the same subject has not already been commissioned. Articles will be peer reviewed before an editorial decision is made.
Reviews should either be definitive overviews of a major topic connected with oncology or updates of knowledge in a somewhat narrower field of current interest. The word count should be between 3000 and 4500 words, depending on the breadth of the topic, and should include a maximum of 75 references. References selected for publication in the journal should be chosen for their importance, ease of access, and for the 'further reading' opportunities they provide. Following the references, authors should consider supplying a short list of useful websites where readers can find further information on the subject.
The Lancet Oncology welcomes systematic reviews, prepared according to the Cochrane Collaboration guidelines. However, when conducting any literature review, it is important that there is complete transparency concerning the choice of material included. All review articles submitted for publication in
The Lancet Oncology must therefore contain a brief section entitled
Search strategy and selection criteria. This should state clearly the sources (databases, journals, or book reference lists, etc) of the material covered and the criteria used to include or exclude studies; for example, English language only or studies conducted after a specific date.
Example:
| Search strategy and selection criteria |
| Data for this review were identified by searches of MEDLINE, Current Contents, PubMed, and references from relevant articles using, the search terms 'sentinel node', 'breast cancer', and 'axilla'. Abstracts and reports from meetings were included only when they related directly to previously published work. Only papers published in English between 1980 and 2000 were included. |
Historical reviews - These should follow the same rules and guidelines as for
Reviews but should cover the chronological developments in an important or interesting area of oncology.
Personal views - These should be around 2000-4500 words in length, with a maximum of 75 references. These opinion pieces are thought-provoking essays on an oncological subject and may reflect an individual perception, involvement, or contribution to oncology, but must be prepared in a similar way to a
Review article. See submission requirements outlined for
Reviews for further details. Unsolicited contributions are welcome, although as with
Reviews it is best to contact the Editor before submission to ensure that the proposed topic is within the remit of the journal.
Essays - Essays can be narrower in scope than
Personal views and may be used to discuss a personal perspective or philosophy about an oncology-related subject. Word length is limited to 2000 words, with a maximum of 50 references. All
Essays should include one or two appropriate illustrations.
Case reports - Case reports should describe single interesting or unusual cases, including those describing rare cancers, in which the initial appearance, the possible diagnoses, or the treatment regimens used, might be of help or interest to other oncologists. The text should be not more than 1000 words, plus five references. The inclusion of up to two clinical photographs is strongly encouraged. At least one of the authors should have been clinically responsible for the patient. Consent for publication in print and electronically must be obtained before submission, from the patient or, if this is not possible, from their next of kin. A consent form is available at http://image.thelancet.com/extras/tloconsentform.pdf. All
Case reports are peer-reviewed prior to publication.
Clinical pictures - These should feature interesting or unusual clinical photographs, accompanied by a brief text (maximum 200 words) describing the picture, explaining the context, and either describing the outcome or drawing attention to the features of interest, as appropriate. There should be no references and signed consent from the patient (or relatives, where the patient has died) must be supplied before publication can proceed. See information on
Case reports for consent form details.
Advances in research - These are similar to
Clinical pictures but should feature novel groundbreaking images from preclinical studies in an oncological environment. Photographs must be accompanied with a brief paragraph of text (maximum 200 words) describing the picture, explaining the context, or drawing attention to the key features of interest, as appropriate. There should be no references.
Forums - These are a platform for discussing controversies in oncology. Each
Forum contains three or more 800-word opinion pieces written by oncologists, researchers, nurses, patients, and others with an interest in the topic under discussion. While in-house editors commission these, suggestions for topics from the journal's readers are very welcome.
De libris/Where on the web - Readers with an interest in contributing book and/or web reviews should contact the Editor. In general, these submissions should be between 350 and 400 words.
Errata - Any substantial error in a published article will be corrected as soon as possible. Blame is not apportioned; the important thing is to set the record straight. If errors are spotted quickly, any reprints that have been ordered can usually be amended. Please contact the editorial team if you spot a major error in the journal.
Title page - A brief imaginative title, not exceeding 100 characters, a short running title, not exceeding 50 characters, and name(s), affiliation(s), current position(s), and full address(es) of the authors. The name and address of the corresponding author should be separately and clearly indicated, together with his/her telephone, fax, and email details.
Authors' contributions and signatures - The Lancet Oncology will not publish a
Review,
Historical review,
Personal view,
Case report, or
Clinical picture unless it has the signatures of all authors along with all the initial submission.
Conflict of interest and source of funding - A conflict of interest exists when an author or the author's institution has financial or personal relationships with other people or organisations that inappropriately influence (bias) his or her actions. Financial relationships are easily identifiable, but conflicts can also occur because of personal relationships, academic competition, or intellectual passion. A conflict can be actual or potential, and full disclosure to the Editor is the safest course. All submissions to
The Lancet Oncology must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest (see
Lancet 2001;
358: 854-56). The Editor may use such information as a basis for editorial decisions, and will publish such disclosures if they are believed to be important to readers in judging the manuscript. At the end of the text, under a subheading
Conflict of interest, all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of financial conflicts include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications, and travel grants, all within 3 years of beginning the work submitted. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should state that there are none.
The Lancet Oncology may decide not to publish a
Review on the basis of a declared financial interest of an author in a company (or its competitors) that makes a product discussed in the paper. However, we would much prefer such matters to be resolved earlier, at the commissioning stage.
Main text - Should begin with a summary of no more than 150 words, which briefly covers the content of the review. Use subheadings to break up the text in the main body of the article, and try to distribute references to the figures and tables evenly throughout the manuscript. Please include a short paragraph at the beginning, giving brief author(s) information (current position(s) and affiliations).
Permissions - A statement indicating permission to re-produce previously published material, to use illustrations or report information about identifiable people, or to name people for their contributions (personal communications etc) should be included.
References - These should be in the 'Vancouver' style, numbered in the order in which they first appear in the article. Titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the
Index Medicus style (see http://www.nlm.nih.gov). Please ensure that reference numbering throughout the manuscript is not inserted using electronic referencing software, such as Endnote, because this can cause problems editing the article for publication. All references must be verified by the author(s) against original documents.
Manuscripts - Manuscripts can be submitted either electronically via email or as a paper copy, together with one set of original/high-resolution illustrations and two low-resolution copies. Text should be printed double-spaced on one side of A4/Letter-size paper, with wide margins. Please include a copy of the manuscript on a 3.5" computer disk in Word (up to version 97), WordPerfect, rtf (rich text), or text (ASCII) formats. The disk must be marked with the names of the authors, and the format and wordprocessor program used. Separate files should be used for the main text (plus references), the figure legends, and tables. The electronic version of the paper will be used, so this must match the paper version of the manuscript exactly. Note: please use protective packaging (cardboard, bubblewrap, etc) when sending original artwork, photographs, slides, and computer disks by mail. No responsibility will be taken for damaged material. Please keep copies of everything submitted.
Artwork - Inclusion of illustrations (slides, photographs, and good quality artwork) is strongly encouraged. The first figure for all
Reviews,
Historical reviews, and
Personal views should be an eyecatching image that captures the general theme of the paper. It should have a width of 81 mm and a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. We can use artwork (photos and line art, eg graphs) created on Mac or PC computers. Artwork can be saved as either Generic EPS, TIFF, PICT, GIF, JPEG, Postscript, or Acrobat PDF files. Any drawn artwork should be sent as a postscript file. Line artwork (eg graphs, diagrams, etc) must be saved as vector files. Do not send graphs as bitmaps. All photos/photomicrograph files must be at least 300 dpi and 110 mm wide. Please submit your artwork on 3.5", Zip, or Jaz discs, CD-ROM, or email. If artwork is compressed use only Stuffit or SEA software. If required, further assistance can obtained from the editorial team.
